Over the years, I have been (accurately) labeled as an over-thinker, a skeptic, and a cynic. For the best I can remember I have always been this way, never accepting things at face value but always asking probing questions to dig just a bit deeper. I guess I believe that truth very rarely presents itself on the surface. The most important things live a bit deeper. There is the way that things appear to be, and then there is the way that things really are that can only be discovered with a little deeper digging. Truth requires a little bit of mining to uncover.

I don’t know why I’m so skeptical about superficial things. Maybe its because I grew up in the 1980’s and felt consistently betrayed and manipulated by the marketing tactics of toy companies. The toy commercials were AMAZING. The toys never ever lived up to the hype. (Looking at you Battle Damage He-Man!)

Or maybe it was because, as a socially awkward introvert child, I remember numerous times in which I was invited into what I thought was a friendship or a social group only to realize far too late that someone was just trying to get something from me. I’ve felt deceived, manipulated, and used as a means to achieving someone else agenda. A classmate becomes a friend to get help with homework, a girl flirts with you to make the desired boyfriend jealous, the coworker who buddies up to you to get the best gossip or insider info. After getting burned so many times, you start thinking about trust.

So who do you trust, and how do you know you can trust them? Because there are some people who have mastered the ability to appear to be something other than what they really are. But I think we all learn at some point that there is a difference between people or groups who do good things as a means to ultimately get what they want and people or groups who do good things for the sincere and altruistic reasons. Have you ever been led down a path that someone else wanted you to go down only to realize that once you reached the destination and they got what they wanted they left you empty handed or hurting?

From a young age I’ve been developing a critical lens through which I view the whole world. For me, I really don’t put too much stock in appearances or actions. I’m less concerned with what it looks like someone is doing, but more interested in why they are doing it. And the more effort that people put into making sure things appear to be a certain way, the harder that people try to sell me on a particular view of reality, the more my guard goes up. The more energy and effort people expend to convince me to see things a certain way, the more I want to know what’s in it for them. What do they gain if I go along with their program? If someone approaches me from a position of sincerity and vulnerability, I’m quick to trust and engage. But if someone approaches me with a predetermined agenda, I will want to know the motivations behind it.

And from the time I was young this lens through which I viewed the world, and that some people called pessimism or skepticism, made me feel a bit like an outsider. I was probably the only 6th grader I knew that was saying things like, “if a politician has to take a poll in order to see what they should say they believe in order to get elected, they probably don’t really believe it.” That’s a level of cynicism that most of my friends didn’t share.

As I got older I realized that asking deeper questions made people uncomfortable. Most people are searching for answers to questions or solutions to meet their needs. And when something appears to meet those needs, our tendency is to want to trust it implicitly. It looks like the very thing for which we’ve been searching and hoping. Why would we question that?

And so for most of my life I have asked questions, that not only others weren’t asking, but questions that people didn’t want to ask. But try as I might, I’ve never been able to trust the superficial world. The most important things are always deeper and I wanted to do the work to uncover that which was hidden underneath the shiny veneer. And because of that, I’ve stepped on toes, made people uncomfortable, and even hurt feelings.

But it seems to me that the other alternative, to just accept things as they appear to be leaves us open to be manipulated and used. Some people know how to exploit our needs and fears. They know which buttons to push in order to get us to do what they want us to do. If we aren’t asking critical questions about the motivations of others actions, we are seeing the world as people wish for us to see it, not for what it really is.

And for the longest time, I thought my search for truth and meaning in a world that valued a quick fix made me weird. I didn’t think there were many people out there who grew tired of others controlling and manipulating the appearance of things in order control and manipulate people. But then I discovered literature; novels, poetry, epic tales. These things were exercises in truth seeking and truth telling. And the best literature required the reader to do work to get to the truth. Now being a high school student with a new found passion for poetry and classic works of literature didn’t make me any less weird. But it did make me feel less alone. I started to realize that there was a long tradition of people rejecting the superficial in an effort to find truth. My passion for the Bible grew around this time as well for the same reason.

As my skepticism of the world grew I discovered a whole new world of people who sought truth while criticizing those who sought to take advantage of people’s tendency to trust the things that appeared to make their dreams come true or solve their problems.

And during this particular season in my life, I was introduced to the band Blues Traveler. Their song “Hook” had my attention immediately. It was a critique of our tendency to accept the superficial and make ourselves vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation. The premise of the song is that the substance of the song didn’t matter. Its sung from the first person perspective of someone who confesses to manipulating the audience through strategic tactics. The song gets information wrong. The singer admits to being insincere and just going through the motions to make some money. There is a bridge in the song where the lyrics make absolutely no sense, but its catchy and fun.

The whole song is a confession. ” I’m lying to you, I’m manipulating you, I’m using you for my own gain. And it doesn’t matter, because you’ll keep coming back because it makes you feel good.” The irony is that “Hook” became one of their most popular songs, proving the point that as long as it sounds good, it doesn’t matter what they say.

Any way, I’ll list the lyrics here and then link to the video. I present to you Blues Traveler’s “Hook.” A ballad for those of us who will never be satisfied with the superficial or with blindly accepting what others are selling. Its an anthem for those of us who value substance over appearance. I hope you love the irony as much as I do.

It doesn’t matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I’ll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I’ve said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don’t matter who you are
If I’m doing my job then it’s your resolve that breaks

Because the hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely

There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don’t mean any of this
Still my confession draws you near
To confuse the issue I refer
To familiar heroes from long ago
No matter how much Peter loved her
What made the Pan refuse to grow

Was that the hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely

Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in
If you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
Make a desperate move or else you’ll win
And then begin to see
What you’re doing to me
This MTV is not for free
It’s so PC it’s killing me

So desperately I sing to thee of love
Sure but also rage and hate and pain and fear of self
And I can’t keep these feeling on the shelf
I’ve tried, well no, in fact I lied
Could be financial suicide but I’ve got too much pride inside
To hide or slide
I’ll do as I’ll decide and let it ride till until I’ve died
And only then shall I abide by this tide
Of catchy little tunes
Of hip three minute diddies
I wanna bust all your balloons

I wanna burn of all your cities to the ground
But I’ve found, I will not mess around
Unless I play then hey
I will go on all day
Hear what I say
I have a prayer to pray
That’s really all this was
And when I’m feeling stuck and need a buck
I don’t rely on luck

Because the hook brings you back
I ain’t tellin’ you no lie

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